Swerve
Within the front compartment, the driver kept constant watch of the clock, impatiently waiting for the next stop when his shift would be over. Dressed in a navy blue uniform, complete with cap and shiny shoes, he looked more like a postal worker than a driver. He had grown intimately familiar with this trip as he had been driving it for nearly a decade now. After two or three of these trips a day, depending on how busy it was, he would be able to go home.
He was a man who lived a dull and comfortable life, forever caught up in a repetition that only he could endure. He was like a distant relative whose home always smelled the same, clouded by aromas so old in taste that they seemed stale. He was someone who had a meatloaf night and a football game to watch. Someone who children dreamed of not being when they grew older and who was called a loser behind his back. Someone who had great high school stories.
He didn't shave today, and the dark hair that grew on his face made him appear bummish and beat. At 38, circles vultured around the dead carcasses that were his eyes. They were like belligerent, fat tourists who refused to leave, even when he was well rested.
His seat was always comfortable due to the red cushion he brought to work. It had only in recent years lost some of it's elasticity having been pounded by flatulence and an ever heavier workload. Its smell was rotten animal, partially covered by cheap air freshener and the putrid result was not lost on any passenger.
Usually, there was no passenger, but today was different. A stern young girl, wearing a gray and black uniform, reminiscent of a distantly familiar military, sat motionless in the passenger seat, staring at a clipboard.
The static of a radio on her side keyed in.
"Hailey, location?"
"Z, don't say my name over the net, you know better. We're approximately 45 miles south south/east of the first checkpoint, just now passing Bronson." Her sensual, girly voice was in opposition to her mature appearance. Her body was attractive and fit, but hidden underneath layers of professional clothing. At only sixteen years of age, her uniform was that of a student police corporal of the H-17 compound. Her dirty blonde hair was pulled tightly back into a compressed, symmetrical braid, and the only slight trace of delicate femininity was a single strand of hair on the left side of her face.
That face was somewhat gaunt and pretty, but void of any remote effort to display its finer qualities. Contrived perfection was her most distinguishing feature. Her life, schedule, friendships, and habits were all regimented- and this precocious precision and reliability was the reason the Student Police Captain chose her for the peculiar and bazaar duty that lie ahead of her.
The driver looked over in a prying way, smiling with cigarette stained teeth. "So what you got there?"
Hailey turned her head with the efficient motion of a robotic arm. "It's just statistical data, nothing important." She raised her groomed, razor-thin eyebrows and coldly puckered her mouth, turning back to the paper and refusing to fully acknowledge the man.
"Well, if you need any help, just let me know." The oddly situated man was attracted by the electric, limitless possibilities of youth. It was a youth that kept him up at night. A youth he longed to regain. He was motivated with the idea that wooing this girl to even the slightest degree would mean that he still had it, and that he wasn't washed up with only age to show for his efforts in life.
"I think I'll be just fine. Thanks." The way in which she enunciated the word "thanks," made it a finalizing statement intending to end all further planned conversation. She returned to her itinerary paperwork which really didn't require any attention at the moment. Her radio sounded again.
"H2, adjust the receiver. There's a bit of interference."
"Okay, say when."
She reached behind her seat and began to systematically check a large black box with a few blinking lights and wires leading to the passenger cab.
"Right there, that's good."
"Okay, one of the coaxials was loose." As she was still leaning over the box the driver stretched his neck to see down her blouse. The solitary nature of the cab raised his predatory confidence.
"So you got a boyfriend back at that school?"
"What? H-17 isn't a school…or just a school, and yes." She lied.
"That must be nice… Wish I had a girl like you back in high school, bet you're a lot of fun."
She rolled her eyes and shook her head. She figured the trip would be over soon enough. The driver periodically looked over at her and then back to the road, trying to make eye contact with her so she would see him checking her out. She seemed like a fountain of youth with perfect, milky-pale skin. To him it seemed milky but to others she was halfway to being a corpse- the body of a girl post drowning in cold water. At that point the man knew he disgusted this girl. That need to be accepted was then overcome by a want to violate her until she craved repulsion.
Hailey was about to pick up her radio to contact Z but he called first.
"H2, I didn't realize it at first, but whatever you did, you cut the audio. I'm not hearing anything."
"Do you think it matters? I mean we're almost at Terra Station."
"Well, you see its the…Give me that…" a deeper and far more commanding voice came on. "H2, fix the audio."
"Yes, Captain."
Her inauguration into the Student Police was the hardest thing she had ever done, physically and mentally. It was a process the Captain was in charge of. He controlled the volunteer's lives day and night for four months, failing the weaker ones for any number of reasons. During this time his orders became carved into the brains of the would-be student police members with mixed enthusiasm, pride, and fear. So when the Captain spoke, she moved without hesitation.
She eyed the audio wire connected to the black box. After everything seemed in order she followed the wire and hesitated before the foul realization that it led to the amplifier under the driver seat.
"Look, I have to check the box under your seat, don't try anything. Don't even look at me funny." She raised her eyebrows waiting for confirmation in a commanding and professional manner while still managing to be naïve. Her all around lack of physical experience made any possible encounter here a horrible one.
He smirked a little, like how he remembered doing to girls two decades ago who thought it was cute, "what would I try?"
After another cold look she moved to check under his seat. She turned her head lower than necessary and curved her back trying desperately to avoid any inadvertent physical contact with the driver. She rested her elbows on the ground holding a flashlight in one hand and her radio with the other.
Nothing appeared to be wrong. She hated to ask the Captain anything because it made it seem as though she wasn't ready for this duty or wasn't as self reliant as he thought. She swallowed and then spoke.
"Captain, the secondary says everything is green. What should I do?"
"Reset it. It's probably just the new system."
"I've never seen the new model, where is the reset?"
Focused on the box, her back arched further and even the uniform didn't cover her petite form and round ass. The driver peered with troll eyes and salivated. "Have you ever sucked your boyfriend's dick before?"
It took a second until the shock of the question reached Hailey like fuse burning towards dynamite. She grew angrier with the situation by the second.
She exploded, "hey, shut the fuck up. Don't say another wo-" the radio interrupted, "it's on the bottom left, the red one over the two blue bars."
"I'll bet you give really good head ya' know. You wanna give me road head? I've got a couple hundred bucks on me…"
Hailey jerked up with intentions of yelling at the driver and putting him in his place. She cracked her head on the metal bar beneath the seat and pulled her hand up to hold it. The driver mistook the opportunity to reach behind her and run his hand up her backside pushing in with his fingers.
The unpleasant jolt on her head stopped hurting when she felt his hand. The sharp pain was embarrassing, degrading and thoroughly unsexual. She pushed off and jumped up, punching him in the face. The driver swerved violently to one side and then straightened back onto the road..
"What the fuck do you think you're doing? Don't you ever…" her face turned bright red over its pale canvas and she found herself infuriated and at a loss for words.
His face contorted with a kind of anger that was never far from the surface.
"Now you know you fucked up you little bitch-"
"H2, my monitor says that you haven't reset the box yet, where the fuck is my audio?"
Hailey breathed out with frustration as if to release heat that had been building inside her.
"Captain I'm sorry, just the driver and…"
"The driver what…"
She reconsidered. She knew the captain could deal with the situation but she didn't want him to. She wanted to be the one in control.
"Nothing, it's under control."
"From my visual it doesn't look under control."
"You have front cab visual? On me?"
"I thought I'd assist for the first part of the mission. I know the driver can hear me…So, driver, shut the fuck up and look forward, otherwise you'll be looking for new work and a ride when you get to Terra Station. I'll be talking with his boss. And you…never mind, the audio is back on. You probably just drove through a dead zone, strange that I had visual though… When you get to Terra find Z. He'll have your complete orders. I won't be there and I won't be involved. You two will be on your own. Don't fuck it up."
"Yes, sir."
The driver felt betrayed by the perceived solitude of the cab as if he were in a bathroom and one of the walls proved to be a raising stage curtain. The defeat for the driver also felt like a defeat for Hailey. She always envisioned herself as empowered, but the presence of the Captain left room for no other leaders. The driver was just one pathetic guy, she knew she could have handled it.
"H2, you're doing a good job. I'm just giving you a hard time kid."
Every time she heard this nickname she wondered what it would take to outgrow it. For now, it weighed her down. Though she never asked, the Captain couldn't be too much older than her, because his residence was within H-17.